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I'm with Jean-Pierre, I absolutely hate the thing. None of the tracks on it make good instrumentals, they suffer from the usual rock and roll total lack of melody.

Uncle Fiesta wrote:I'm with Jean-Pierre, I absolutely hate the thing. None of the tracks on it make good instrumentals, they suffer from the usual rock and roll total lack of melody.

What, even Something?

Fenderman wrote:Did we ever ascertain if John Rostill played on this album and if so, what tracks?

According to Brian Bennett, John Rostill played on two tracks, although he couldn't remember which ones. Mo Foster has suggested that John played on "Lucille" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".

JimN wrote:

Uncle Fiesta wrote:I'm with Jean-Pierre, I absolutely hate the thing. None of the tracks on it make good instrumentals, they suffer from the usual rock and roll total lack of melody.

What, even Something?

Yes, it's a perfectly good song, but as an instrumental, no. Its saving grace is a snatch of Mellotron in the introduction. (But blink and you miss it.)

To me, it's the most daring album The Shadows have ever released. The other of their albums which fall in that category (I think) are "Rockin' With Curly Leads" and "Guardian Angel". For this reason, I like them all very much. When I first heard "Shades Of Rock", I had to get used to it, but having had a few more listens, it really started to grow on me.

As I've said before, i simply couldn't get into this album. I only liked Something and What i'd say. I think it's their worst release.

Interesting to see this topic revived. Many, many years ago..,.and interviewing / chatting to Brian, Bruce and Hank....they were all adamant that John Rostill definitely played on "Shades Of Rock". It is true though, that there seems to be no documentation to provide certainty. No one could recall precisely which tracks John played on. They all seemed to be reasonably certain that John played on at least two tracks...with both Hank and Bruce opining that it 'might have been three tracks'...but they could not be certain...but, along with Brian, they were sure that he played on at least two tracks. Several years ago I asked Mo Foster and Alan Jones if they would listen to " Shades Of Rock" and proffer their very expert opinions as to which 2 tracks John might have played on. They kindly agreed and both (independently of each other) came up with the same two titles previously mentioned. Interestingly enough, bass expert Laurence Canty also (many years before that) expressed an opinion that it was John Rostill playing bass on those very same tracks. I guess that is as conclusive as we are ever likely to get almost 50 years later.

As I was writing this late last night, I recalled another snippet of information which has only recently come to light. Whilst I was working on the revised edition of The Shadows - The Early Years at EMI, I had temporary access to the (now digitised) EMI tape files '' (Shadows only). I made some notes at the time. This morning I have dug those old notes out. Both "Satisfaction" and "Lucille" seem to have been the first tracks laid down for "S O Rock", with the date being March 11th, 1970. The next batch of tracks were not laid down until May, 1970.

Now....here is the interesting part (which is probably why I made a note at the time). Also recorded on March 11th 1970 was "Bony Maronie". Now..if Mo Foster / Alan Jones / Laurence Canty (all 3 being amongst the foremost exponents of the art of bass guitar playing) indepently decided that it was John Rostill playing on "Satisfaction" and "Lucille" - then this makes it highly likely that John also played on "Bony Maronie". This would fit in with both Hank and Bruce thinking that John 'might have played on three tracks."

Further thoughts /input from our esteemed members would be most welcome.

By the 1969/70 period, John Rostill had developed quite a "Motown-y" bass-playing style which can be heard on The Shadows Live at Sankei Hall LP (from autumn 1969). Of the 12 tracks on the Shades of Rock LP, this can be heard most clearly on Satisfaction so I'm pretty sure you're right. The LP seems to polarise fans and has been discussed many times before; personally I love it! It doesn't sound like The Shads but there's no mistaking Hank's guitar-genius. "Booker T and the MGs for the home counties"!!

Talking of which, I was playing their Doin' Our Thing LP from 1968 the other day; quite a similar "vibe" to SOR, man...

Arpeggio wrote:As I was writing this late last night, I recalled another snippet of information which has only recently come to light. Whilst I was working on the revised edition of The Shadows - The Early Years at EMI, I had temporary access to the (now digitised) EMI tape files '' (Shadows only). I made some notes at the time. This morning I have dug those old notes out. Both "Satisfaction" and "Lucille" seem to have been the first tracks laid down for "S O Rock", with the date being March 11th, 1970. The next batch of tracks were not laid down until May, 1970.

Now....here is the interesting part (which is probably why I made a note at the time). Also recorded on March 11th 1970 was "Bony Maronie". Now..if Mo Foster / Alan Jones / Laurence Canty (all 3 being amongst the foremost exponents of the art of bass guitar playing) indepently decided that it was John Rostill playing on "Satisfaction" and "Lucille" - then this makes it highly likely that John also played on "Bony Maronie". This would fit in with both Hank and Bruce thinking that John 'might have played on three tracks."

Further thoughts /input from our esteemed members would be most welcome.

This is indeed very interesting information! According to Malcolm Campbell's books "A Guide To The Shadows And Hank Marvin On CD" (2005 edition) and "A Pocket Guide To Shadow Music", all tracks of "Shades Of Rock" were recorded from March 11th, 1970 on and during a three-week period. So, I always assumed this would mean the complete album was recorded between March 11th and 31st, 1970. It's also possible of course, that all tracks have been recorded in a three-week period, but not consecutively. Would this mean that the other nine tracks were recorded in May, 1970, around the time of Hank's solo tracks "Break Another Dawn" and "Would You Believe It" (both recorded on May 16th, 1970)?